Should I buy a Timeshare?

Sunrise in Indio, CA from our patio

 "Free three day trip - all you have to do is attend a presentation." 

Have you ever been given an opportunity like this? If not, do you live in the US? Because we are inundated with this all the time. I remember the first timeshare presentation my husband and I attended. I'm a sucker for stuff like this, so I was ready to sign my life away, but thankfully my husband has a much more level head. We walked away without a timeshare, and I don't even remember for sure if we got whatever we were promised for attending. Over the years I had friends and relatives that bought into one of these programs, and they were generous to share their benefits with us. We were able to fulfill our then 4 year old's lifelong dream to visit Big Bear Lake thanks to my Aunt kindly allowing us to book through their timeshare. Combined with airline miles that my husband had received for work travel, our family of 6 got a week-long vacation in California for almost nothing out of pocket. Then my sister-in-law decided to move across the country, and it no longer made sense for her to maintain her timeshare, whose properties are primarily located on the West Coast, so she gifted it to us. For a decade, we had the blessing of about a week's worth of "points" we could use whenever, wherever we wanted. We took family trips to the Oregon Coast, Victoria, BC, and exotic places like Blaine, Washington. Ok, I cannot say that I necessary recommend Blaine, but everywhere else we visited was great. In 2019, just before the COVID shutdown nobody saw coming, we even took a family trip to Disneyland.

My youngest living his best life on Big Bear Lake, CA

 But when my husband was laid off last spring, we took the opportunity to reassess some of our spending and we had to stop and think - is this timeshare worth it? You see, even once you become an owner, timeshare visits are not free. You have to pay a monthly "maintenance fee" in addition to increasingly expensive housekeeping fees. For us, this equated to at least $100 a month, and again that was for about a week's worth of points. The fees differ depending on the number of points you have. So we were paying about $1,200 a year for lodging for one trip. At just over $170 per night ($1,200/7) for a nice unit with a full kitchen and separate bedroom(s) the cost isn't bad, but with everything I've been learning about points and miles, I knew I could do better. So, we offered the points up for sale, and quickly learned that the flooded points market wasn't going to bear much fruit for us. The company we owned through used to have a "give back" program where they would assume your points back with no recompense, but they have put that program on hold indefinitely. Thankfully, that same Aunt that allowed us to use her benefits when our kids were young agreed to assume our points for us. The program didn't make this simple either and the process took months to accomplish, much of it without updates or information, and during all of it we had to continue paying our monthly maintenance fees. They even charged $400 to change the name on the ownership, which again my Aunt was kind to cover. Thankfully, because of the number of points she owns her maintenance fees will be half of what they were for us, but we are so grateful to be out from under them. Want to hear a funny story? My husband and I just got back from visiting our favorite resort from this timeshare program - without being owners or utilizing my Aunt's benefits. This time we booked it just like any other hotel through my credit card's travel portal, and utilizing a travel credit that we get every year as well as a limited time promotion they had going - making it $0 out of pocket! 

 

 So with all of these different experiences to glean from, what would my recommendation be to someone considering a timeshare? The answer - it depends. The program we have owned and used is WorldMark by Wyndham, now owned by Travel & Leisure I believe. It has lots of pros and cons, as do all of them. On the pro side, the properties are quite nice with consistent amenities. I love the full kitchens and in-unit laundry offered in most locations. Having units with multiple bedrooms can be really great when you travel as a family, and even with just my husband and I, it's nice to be able to sneak out of the bedroom early and do my Bible study while my husband sleeps in - which is much more difficult in a hotel room. They have pretty standard pools and hot tubs on property, and the Lazy Rivers available at a few select locations are really cool. Different properties have things like convenience stores, game rooms, workout centers, and even spas. So now, the cons. Their website has been a pain point for years, if not decades. If you have to call in, you'll encounter hours-long hold times and extra fees for phone bookings. On the Facebook owner's group I read countless horror stories of bookings that disappeared or were cancelled at the last minute by the company as well as vacations ruined by aggressive salespeople that would call the units as early as 7am trying to hunt people down for sales presentations - and these are people who were already owners. We were blessed to not have experiences like these personally. I sat in on a couple of "owner updates" but at the mention of a debilitating degenerative health condition and then later a brain tumor, they were pretty quick to stop extolling the benefits of lifetime membership. 

 If you have decades of travel ahead of you and would like to have the accountability and availability of consistently nice places to stay, a timeshare might be a good option for you. My advice though - DO NOT BUY DIRECTLY FROM THE COMPANY!!! If you do (at least with WorldMark), you'll pay about $2-3 per point, with a week equating to about 8,000-10,000 points. That's up to $30,000 and you'll still have to pay $1,200 per year in maintenance fees on top of that. There are a number of reputable, secondhand markets for timeshares out there. Simply search online for timeshare resale, and then make sure to check any company you're considering on Trust Pilot. On the resale market, these memberships can cost as little as $0.25 per point, making that $30,000 turn into $2,000 - for the same product. Yes, the company will tell you that you don't get this or that major benefit if you buy your points resale, but in my 10-year experience I never once used any of those benefits and I spoke to a great deal of owners lounging around in hot tubs around the country who bought their points resale and were perfectly happy with them.

 If, like me, you don't want to be tied down to specific properties or have to book things 13 months in advance at 6 am when the reservations open in order to get the booking you want, but you're still interested in utilizing properties like this, I have great news. Most, if not all, of these properties are bookable on the open market through various Online Travel Agencies (think Travelocity or Expedia). On Expedia, the resort I just stayed in (WorldMark Indio) would cost $1,617 for a one week booking starting 12/19 of this year - not much more than the $1,200 I was paying as maintenance fees. But I booked our stay through my credit card (Capital One) portal, where the same stay is only $1,360 and I can use my $300 yearly credit to reduce that cost even further. Our last trip was only three nights, and the credit, along with a $50 promo, covered it entirely. You could pay for the stay with Capital One miles if you want, at $0.01 per mile or 135,960, but if you really wanted to go that route you'd be better off paying for the trip and then using miles to pay it off after because you'll earn 10x miles when booking a hotel through the Capital One portal, so effectively getting 10% off your stay. 

 If you're interested in the credit card I use to access Capital One Travel, it's travel credit, and many other awesome benefits, you can use my referral link to check it out and if you get approved, you get their incredible sign up bonus (they are offering 100,000 miles at the time of this post) and I get a little bonus too! 

Here's the Thing: Timeshares are a tricky beast. They can be great, but once they get their claws in you, they never want to let go. If you walk into it with your eyes wide open, knowing the pros and cons, and you still think its your best option, enjoy! If you'd rather maintain flexibility and still enjoy the benefits of the resorts - the great news is that you can!

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Thank you for your consideration!